Chargers-Bengals Game Recap: Bolts weather storm, score late to top Cincy 34-27

Justin Herbert led a game-winning drive in the final minute of regulation to help put away the Bengals 34-27 on Sunday Night Football.

The Chargers built a 21-point lead early in the third quarter over the Bengals in what seemed about as one-sided of a game as you’ll have witnessed this season. But an old narrative started to creep its ugly head as the Los Angeles fan base watched — slowly but surely — as the Bolts defense allowed 21 unanswered points in the second half. They were “Chargering” or something at least adjacent to that.

With the score tied at 27-27, the Bengals got the chance to kick two field goals. Kicker Evan McPherson was wide left on both attempts. The latter miss came with 1:52 remaining in regulation which set up a perfect situation for the Chargers to go down, drain the clock, and finish with a walk-off field goal.

Oh, how Chargers fans wished it would have been that simple.

Herbert (17-of-36, 297 yards, 2 TDs) and the offense couldn’t move the ball an inch. They threw three incompletions and had to punt it right back. But the defense had one last, crucial stop left in the tank. When the Bolts got the ball back, they had 45 seconds left and two timeouts remaining.

Herbert linked up with Ladd McConkey twice on the drive for 55 yards to get them into field goal range almost immediately. Despite eyeing game-winning kick, J.K. Dobbins broke loose on a run up the middle and scooted 29 yards for the game-sealing score.

The Bengals had two attempts at a Hail Mary, but both fell incomplete.

On top of his nearly 300 passing yards, Herbert also rushed for 65 more yards, including a 30-yard scramble. Dobbins ended with just 55 yards but scored twice.

McConkey finished with a career-high 123 receiving yards while Quenton Johnston caught his sixth touchdown of the season.

Tuli Tuipulotu filled in admirably for Khalil Mack with 1.5 sacks and two tackles for loss. Daiyan Henley recorded 11 tackles to lead the team while Derwin James had 10 tackles with a half sack.

The Chargers are back at home next Monday night to host John Harbaugh and the Baltimore Ravens in another primetime matchup inside SoFi Stadium.

For a complete quarter-by-quarter recap of today’s game, check it out below.

First Quarter

The Chargers won the toss and chose to defer. The Bolts defense was up first.

A couple plays into the game, Joe Burrow hit wideout Jermaine Burton for a first down. At first replay, it looked as if he may have failed to get a second foot down. After further review, Burton dragged his back foot and the call of a completed catch was upheld. Less than a few minutes into the game, Harbaugh and the Chargers had already burned both a challenge and a timeout.

Luckily, the Bolts defense stepped up from there and forced a punt thanks to a pass breakup by Cam Hart on third down.

The Chargers offense could not muster much on their opening drive of the game. After an eight-yard gain on first down by running back Gus Edwards, back-to-back runs by J.K. Dobbins were stuffed up for no gain.

Burrow found Ja’Marr Chase on a broken play for a big gain of 31 yards. That helped propel Cincy deep into the red zone of the Chargers. Unfortunately for the away team, a pair of penalties, including an intentional grounding by Burrow, pushed them back to a third-and-18. The Bengals would eventually settle for a field goal to take a 3-0 lead.

The ensuing Chargers offensive drive got off to a rough start as Herbert was sacked by Trey Hendrickson on first down. On the very next play, Herbert escaped from the pocket and sliced through the defense for a 20-yard run and a first down. Two plays later, Herbert found Ladd McConkey for a 20-yard gain.

Then, with the offense lined up with three tight ends, Herbert dropped back from under center and fired a bullet to tight end Will Dissly up the right seam for a 29-yard score. The Bolts responded and took back the lead 7-3.

The Bengals were driving as the first quarter came to a close, including converting on fourth-and-one inside Chargers territory as time expired.

Second Quarter

Burrow and the Bengals offense once again moved inside the Chargers red zone, this time aided by a pass interference ball on cornerback Kristian Fulton. But like clockwork, the Chargers defense held again and forced another short field goal by Evan McPherson. The Chargers held their lead 7-6.

Herbert responded with another masterful drive, hitting Quentin Johnston and Will Dissly for big gains to march seamlessly down the field. On a second-and-seven from the Bengals 26-yard line, Herbert faked a handoff and launched another perfect pass to Johnston for the second passing touchdown of the night. Through three offensive drives, Herbert is six-for-six for 123 passing yards and two touchdowns to give the Bolts a 14-6 lead.

Tuli Tuipulotu shut down the following Cincy drive with his second sack of the night on another big third-down stop.

The Chargers offensive train continued to churn on their next drive. Herbert injected jet fuel into the stadium with a massive 30-yard scramble. A 14-yard catch-and-run to Derius Davis from their got the Bolts into the red zone in a haste. Following an unnecessary roughness penalty on Cincinnati, the Chargers had first-and-goal from the two-yard line. After Hasaan Haskins was bottled up on multiple runs, the Chargers rolled the dice on fourth-and-one and were rewarded with a leaping touchdown from J.K. Dobbins who sailed over his blockers across the goal line. The third touchdown of the night for Los Angeles increased their lead to 21-6.

With several minutes left in the half, the Chargers got the ball back knowing that if they could score any points before the break, they’d get the ball right back to begin the second half.

Herbert scrambled for the initial first down on a eight-yard scramble. He then hit Joshua Palmer for another first. Another pass up the seam for 24 yards to Dissly got the Chargers in the red zone with 28 seconds on the clock. A pair of incompletions were then followed by a pass interference call against Cincy. The ball was placed at the one-yard line but with four seconds remaining and the Bolts out of timeouts, they chose to kick the field goal and take a 24-6 lead into halftime.

Third Quarter

The Chargers could not take advantage of their opening drive of the second half as the Bengals looked a bit more energized coming out of the break. A short pass to Dobbins on first down was followed by a screen that was snuffed out by Cincy on second down. On third down, it certainly looked like defensive tackle B.J. Hill jumped the snap early but no flag was thrown as Herbert threw a go route to Johnston but it fell incomplete.

On the other side, the Chargers defense kept the lid on Burrow with another three-and-out-forced.

Dicker added on a 53-yard field goal on the ensuing drive after the offense stalled just past midfield. McConkey caught another big 19-yard pass to convert a third-and-nine that helped the Chargers get in position to add to their lead.

The Bengals finally found a groove on offense which was aided by several defensive penalties by the Chargers. The Bolts defense almost stopped the Bengals from first-and-goal at the four-yard line, but Jesse Minter left Chase one-on-one with rookie Cam Hart on fourth down who was beaten for a touchdown via a slant route. With under six minutes remaining in the quarter, the Chargers were still ahead 27-13.

Herbert and the offense were once again bottled up, this time ending the drive with a sack on third down. J.K. Scott added the rotten cherry on top of the sequence by punting just 32 yards and giving the Bengals possession at the 50-yard line.

The Bengals were stopped on their first three plays before facing a fourth-and-two at the 42. Zac Taylor once again rolled the dice and was rewarded with a 42-yard touchdown pass to Tee Higgins who beat double coverage by Elijah Molden and Ja’Sr Taylor. Just like that, the Bengals were within a score at 27-20.

Fourth Quarter

On the first play of the quarter, Herbert faked a handoff and sprinted to his right. After faking a pass to a receiver in the flat, he took off on a scramble and proceeded to bowl over cornerback Mike Hilton. However, just before Herbert was ruled down, linebacker Logan Wilson’s shin made contact with the ball and dislodged it for a fumble that was recovered by the Bengals.

The Bengals’ first play of the ensuing drive involved Joe Burrow breaking from a Derwin James sack attempt before hitting running back Chase Brown who took it 34 yards into Los Angeles territory.

The Bengals worked their way into the red zone once more as injuries to the Chargers defense began to mount. With cornerback Cam Hart out with a concussion, linebacker Perryman came up slow during the drive with a reported groin injury.

On a second-and-10 from the 17-yard line, Burrow dropped back, floated away from the pass rush, and fired a bullet to Chase who hauled in his second touchdown of the night. After the extra point, the Bengals had completed their comeback as the score was now tied 27-27.

The Chargers looked like they had notched a pivotal takeaway with an interception of Burrow but the turnover was erased after defensive tackle Otito Ogbonnia was called for roughing the passer. In a wild turn of events, after being held on third down, Evan McPherson missed his 48-yard field goal attempt.

The Bengals had another chance to break the tie with a 51-yard field goal attempt but McPherson was wide left yet again which left the Chargers with a little under two minutes to go down and close out the game. Unfortunately, Herbert threw three incompletions, taking little off the clock in the process, and they punted right back to Cincinnati.

Burrow did not fare much better on the other end. Miraculously, the Chargers defense had one last stop in them. The Bengals punted back to the Chargers with over 50 seconds remaining.

Herbert kickstarted the monumental drive with a massive completion to McConkey for 28 yards that helped flip the field in case they needed to punt again. Herbert then hit McConkey once more for 27 yards. That earned McConkey a new career high with 123 receiving yards.

Now needing just the field goal, Harbaugh put in Scott Matlock at fullback with the plan to churn out some tough yards to make Dicker’s field goal as short as possible. However, Dobbins had other plans. After following Matlock through the hole, Dobbins broke outside, shook a Bengals defender, and vaulted into the end zone with 18 seconds remaining to put the Chargers up 34-27 after the extra point.

The Bengals got one big gain to get into Hail Mary range with enough time to chuck it to the end zone twice, but both passes fell incomplete as the Bolts escaped a classic primetime clash.